Here's what reopening Stouffville might look like

The town has a three-phase plan for reopening, with parks and playgrounds potentially reopening later this month

Yorkregion.com
May 8, 2020
Simon Martin

As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc, one question on everyone's mind is: how are we going to open up public life?

The town of Whitchurch-Stouffville provided some answers as to what a phased reopening would look like locally at its May 5 council meeting.

Chief administrative officer Rob Adams said that while the situation changes daily, it’s important for the municipality to plan out how services will gradually increase. “The worst thing to do is not to have thought these things through,” Adams said. 

According to the town’s current plan, Phase 1 would occur in May with the reopening of low-risk outdoor recreational activities like parks, playgrounds, skateboard parks, dog parks and sport courts.

Phase 2 would occur in June with the reopening of facilities like restaurants, arenas, gyms and licensed child-care facilities with lower capacity. The town would open things like the pool for lane swimming and limited-attendance public swimming, the library (with limited service) and the Latcham Art Centre.

Under Phase 2, small to medium social gatherings would be allowed with some restrictions.

While Phase 3 is further away, sometime over the summer, it includes reopening day camps, smaller-scale public events like the farmers’ market and movies in the park and community sports activation. All these plans could change if there is a second wave of COVID-19. “If the pandemic doesn’t decline at the rate we anticipate, we will have to scale back,” Adams said.

Adams told council that the town is in decent financial shape, considering the circumstances. According to the staff report, the estimated shortfall due to COVID-19 is just under $80,000. But that was only after the town took extensive measures to mitigate losses.

On March 13, the town laid off 277 part-time staff. Student hires were postponed until June 29.

The estimated savings from the layoffs was $532,600, projecting out to June 30.

 

The department hit the hardest was leisure services, as the estimated revenue shortfall for the program due to cancellations was close to $1.3 million.

The town has to make large monthly payments for facilities like SoccerCity without getting program revenue. “That is an extremely expensive loss for us,” Mayor Iain Lovatt said.

Work on capital projects hasn’t slowed too much. Approximately 14 per cent (or $5 million) of the capital projects that were approved for 2020 completion have been put on hold pending the length of the pandemic.

However, staff are anticipating 83 per cent of the projects to proceed as scheduled and only 3 per cent to be deferred to 2021.

Both Ward 1 Coun. Ken Ferdinands and Ward 2 Coun. Maurice Smith voiced their apprehension about the potential for the town to run camps this summer. Adams said those decisions would be made in time when more information about the pandemic is available. Summer camps are part of Phase 3 in the town’s reopening plan.